Margaret On The Guillotine

Cover art

MORRISSEY Song
Name	Margaret On The Guillotine
Album/Single	Viva Hate
Length	3:42
Recorded	Autumn-Winter 1987
Writer	Morrissey/Street
Producer	Stephen Street

Information

Margaret On The Guillotine is a song that appears on Morrissey's debut album, Viva Hate. It was co-written and produced by Stephen Street.

Recording

Recording for Viva Hate commenced at The Wool Hall studios in Bath, England in early October and would last until late December. Street recruited Durutti Column guitarist Vini Reilly and session drummer Andrew Paresi to back Morrissey, with Street himself taking over bass duties.

Release

Viva Hate was was released on 14 March 1988 by HMV Records and debuted at #1 on the UK charts.

Re-releases

EMI, in celebration of their 100th anniversary, released a special edition of Viva Hate in the UK in 1997. In addition to featuring brand new artwork, including a new cover shot by Eamonn McCabe, the Centenary Edition features 8 bonus tracks — only one of which was contemporaneous with the album. Surprisingly, "Hairdresser On Fire" does not appear on this version despite originally appearing on the North American version of the album as a bonus track.

On 02 April 2012, a newly remastered special edition of Viva Hate, supervised by Stephen Street, was released. Controversially, Morrissey chose to omit one of the album's original tracks, "The Ordinary Boys," and include the session demo "Treat Me Like A Human Being." In addition to the track list changes, the intro and extended fadeout of "Late Night, Maudlin Street" has been edited. The original album artwork was restored for this release, however, the typeface font on the front cover has been changed, as was the case with the 2011 Bona Drag remaster.

Lyrics

The kind people Have a wonderful dream Margaret on the guillotine

Because people like you Make me feel so tired When will you die? When will you die? When will you die? When will you die? When will you die?

And people like you Make me feel so old inside Please die...

And kind people Do not shelter this dream Make it real

Make the dream real Make the dream real Make it real Make the dream real Make it real

Personnel

• Morrissey - Vocals
  
• Vini Reilly - Guitars, Keyboards
  
• Stephen Street - Bass guitar, guitars
  
• Andrew Paresi - Drums
  
• John Metcalfe - Viola
  
• Fenella Barton - Violin
  
• Mark Davies - Cello
  
• Richard Koster - Violin
  
• Robert Wollard - Cello
  
• Rachel Maguire - Cello
  
• Producer - Stephen Street
  
• Assistant Engineer - Steve Williams
  
• Art co-ordination - Jo Slee
  
• Layout - Caryn Gough
  
• Photography - Anton Corbijn
  
• Photography - Steve Wright
  

Live History

Play count (Morrissey concert): 0

Appears On

• Viva Hate

Related Forum Threads

• Morrissey A-Z: "Margaret on the Guillotine" - Morrissey-solo (Jun 06, 2021)